Five years ago, my family was fortunate enough to purchase a small 25-acre parcel of land in North Dakota. The property is situated in the middle of a winding valley that cuts its way through open crop fields and pasture land.
We had been granted permission to rifle hunt this same area in years past, so we knew there was at least the potential for some hunting opportunities. While scouting out our newly acquired 25 acres, I quickly realized it was going to be a serious challenge to bow hunt, due to a lack of heavy cover on our property, and an overabundance of available food sources on neighboring properties.
After a couple years of minimal hunting success, I began looking into Whitetail Institute's products, and eventually planted my first Alfa-Rack Plus food plot three years ago. As the Alfa-Rack Plus began to sprout, it was as though I had opened the flood gates. We suddenly had more deer on our property than we knew what to do with. Even though there was an abundance of alfalfa and other crops on neighboring properties, the deer made it clear they preferred my little Alfa-Rack Plus plot. We also began seeing more mature deer, including a 3-1/2-year-old 5-by-5 that caught my eye. I watched this 5-by-5 grow by leaps and bounds each year as he fed in our food plot, and he quickly became the dominant buck in our area. Skip ahead to this past Sept. 12, as my wife, mom and I all sat in a blind situated on our food plot. Twenty minutes before dark, deer started streaming into the Alfa-Rack Plus.
Among those deer was the 5-by-5 I had been watching for three years, who had now blown up into a monster 6-by-7. As light faded, something off in the distance spooked the deer, and they all began exiting the food plot. I grunted at the big buck, and he stopped long enough for me to range him, draw back and send an arrow his way. My arrow hit its mark, but due to a light blood trail, we decided to back out and let him sit overnight. When I picked up the blood trail the next morning, it didn't take me long to find the buck I had so much history with. Thanks to Whitetail Institute for their incredible products that made this hunt a possibility, and for helping me seal the deal on this 180-inch North Dakota monarch, my biggest buck ever.
